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My current favorite to make for holidays is a BBQ brisket, or brisket tacos. The brisket is a tougher cut of meat and therefore needs to be handled well to keep it moist and soft. Since I’ve picked up brisket as one of those things I can do well, I get asked a lot about how to figure out cooking it. I’ll share my easy calculations for how to make a great brisket at home in your oven.

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What you’ll need:

· Brisket

· Onion

· Salt

· Pepper

· BBQ, seasoning, dry rub, beer batter or other dressing

When you cut the packaging open on your brisket, go ahead and give it a quick wash. Keep that wrapper handy though, you’ll need it toward the end. You’ll see that one side of the brisket has a fatty layer, usually half an inch to an inch thick. Put the brisket in a pan with the fat side up. This way as the brisket cooks the fat can keep the meat moist.

Dice up the onion to add some flavor. Some people here in Texas like to add some peppers and jalapenos as well. I’m simple, so I prefer a plain onion.

Season your brisket to taste. This can mean a few things. I personally prefer a good BBQ brisket, so I will either make up a quick batch of BBQ from scratch or use my favorite brand of store bought sauce and slather the entire brisket in a bottle so the flavor can cook through the meat. You can also experiment with beer batter, various rubs or sauces.

I usually pour a cup or more of beef stock in the bottom to add more flavor and ensure that the meat stays as moist as possible. This is something you can take or leave, it’s just my preference.

Another tip for those who want easy clean up and chose to skip the broth, you can wrap the brisket in foil inside the pan so there’s even less scrubbing to do.

When you’re brisket is ready to pop in the oven, it’s time to calculate how long you will need to allow for cooking. If you’re a well-done person, I’d suggest something around 275 degrees. I’m more of a medium-rare girl, so I cook my briskets around 225 degrees.

Go back to your wrapping that you removed at the beginning and see how much your brisket weighs. For every pound of meat, you will need to cook the brisket for one to one and a half hours. The more you cook it, the more well done it will be.

So say you have a five pound brisket and want it well done. You’d cook it at about 275 degrees for up to seven and a half hours. Say you want it on the rare side. That same cut of meat would be cooked at 225 degrees for as few as five hours.

If you have a meat thermometer you can cook until the inner temperature is between 145 to 190 degrees.

When it’s finished, cut and serve to your preference, be that sliced and slathered in BBQ sauce or diced and in a taco!

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You can if the brisket is small enough or the crockpot large enough. Since the crockpot usually has a low/medium/high temperature setting, I would suggest sticking with the low or medium heat setting and checking on it fairly often after the first few hours.